The wiring in an aircraft must be installed along predetermined paths so as not to interfere with other structural components of the aircraft. It is also necessary to keep electrical conductors of different paths separated from each other at a required spacing distance, for example, to avoid electromagnetic interferences and so-called arc tracking. Arc tracking can occur under humid conditions if the insulation of a "live" electrical conductor is damaged. In that case a creeping current may occur between two damaged conductors having a respective potential difference between them or may occur between a live conductor and a component at a ground potential.
Conventional support and guide frames of this type are constructed of aluminum tubing interconnected by welding. In order to be connected to the supporting structure, such as an aircraft frame, the ends of the tubular frame members are equipped with an insert and pressed flat and then provided with connecting bores passing through the flat portion of the tubular end. In order to effectively protect the surfaces of the tubular frames, a primer coating is applied to the metal tubing by means of a chromic acid oxidation process. The ends of the tubular elements are further protected by an epoxy resin layer while the tubular portions between the tubular ends are coated with a synthetic material layer applied by a so-called whirl sintering process, also referred to as a powder painting process. The internal surfaces of the tubular aluminum sections are protected by applying a suitable corrosion preventing coating, such as an LPS3 coating.
The just described measures for protecting the aluminum tubular sections against corrosion have the disadvantage that these measures increase the manufacturing costs of the guide and support frame. Costs are further increased by the expensive welding operations. The welding expenses in combination with the measures for protecting the surfaces of the aluminum tubing result in rather high manufacturing costs. A further disadvantage of the conventional guide and support frame is that the frame itself may contribute to the occurrence of or even participate in the above mentioned arc tracking or electromagnetic interference.
It is generally known that components made of a thermoplastic, such as a polyether-etherketone (PEEK), can be bonded by adhesives. However, it is generally necessary to improve the adhesion bond between the components made of PEEK by a pretreatment which involves using corona discharges to oxidize the surfaces to which the adhesive is to be applied prior to such application. Another method for preparing PEEK components for adhesive bonding involves treating the respective components with sulphuric acid. It is also known that adhesive bonding of this nature generally requires very thin adhesive coatings. In order to achieve such thin coatings, it is frequently necessary to perform special processing steps to mutually adapt the surfaces to be bonded to each other. Such processing steps may, for example, involve a surface smoothing after-treatment. Such methods for pretreating and smoothing the components to be adhesively bonded are relatively costly due to the relatively large effort and expense necessary for carrying out these steps.